Giants Head Coach Brian Daboll's Staff a Good Mix of "Old and New"
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It's far too easy for a new NFL head coach relocating to a new city to work with a new team in a news conference to want to have as much familiarity as possible to ensure his success.
But not new Giants head coach Brian Daboll, who will begin his first season as an NFL head coach in the unfamiliar NFC, where the Giants reside.
In putting together his assistant coaching staff, Daboll brought along some familiar names such as Laura Young, the team's director of coaching operations, and Bobby Johnson, the offensive line coach.
But he's also hired several assistant coaches with whom he admitted to having no prior working relationship, including his three coordinators, Mike Kafka (offense) from the Chiefs, Don "Wink" Martindale (defense) from the Ravens, and Thomas McGaughey (special teams) from the Giants.
"They're all intelligent, dependable, good character, team-first people who are experts in their subject matter, can teach well and explain the details of their positions," Daboll said of his new assistants.
Daboll's approach in selecting his assistant coaches differs from that of his predecessor Joe Judge, who with maybe a handful of exceptions--McGaughey, offensive coordinator Jason Garrett, receivers coach Tyke Tolbert, and offensive line coach Marc Colombo all come to mind--filled his initial assistant staff with people he had worked with at some point before landing with the Giants.
In Judge's case, it's certainly fair to wonder if having all that familiarity helped or hurt him. Based on how his tenure ended, the evidence points to the latter.
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Daboll seems to have avoided making that same mistake of loading up with the nearly two dozen assistants Judge had who, again, were people with whom he was familiar. Daboll has, instead, shown he's more open-minded to having different opinions and voices in his meeting room.
"I think what you try to do when you're putting together a staff, whether that be an offensive staff in a smaller form or the entire staff, you try to put together a group of people that will complement one another, whether that's experience, whether that's energy, whether that's detail, whether that's passion," Daboll said.
"You don't want to have a cookie-cutter approach and hire everybody that's exactly the same. I think that you have to offset blind spots."
One thing the bulk of Daboll's staff does have in common is a combination of NFL and college experience, the exception being running back coach DeAndre Smith, whose 22-year coaching career was within the college ranks.
That's worth mentioning, as one of the criticisms of Judge's former staff was he had too many guys who were new to the NFL coaching ranks on staff and who, despite being solid teachers, might not have always been able to get the most out of the veteran players.
Daboll said he was happy with the quality of people he's assembled for his new staff.
"I think there's an important part of developing a staff and bringing a staff together in terms of personality and fit, so we're happy with the guys that we've hired to this point," he said.
"I'd say we've taken our time making decisions and really being methodical with our approach. We weren't going to rush anything--just take each case day by day."
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